Quinoa Tabouleh

The other night, Mr. Man and I were up late, okay, we’re almost always up late. But this time, he was working on a big push for work. It had gotten late – and we were both getting hungry, so I poked around in the fridge to see what we had left that needed to be used up. I found the cucumbers from this week’s FFTY box, along with a couple of tomatoes, some basil, and a fair amount of curly parsley that had been hiding in the back of the fridge – and I decided to try making a Tabouleh – only instead of Bulgar Wheat, which I wasn’t really in the mood for, I decided to try using quinoa.

Quinoa has become one of my favorite grains lately – it cooks up quickly, has a nice texture, and is full of proteins and fiber. It’s replaced brown rice as my go-to grain for tossing with veggies for one-pot meals. And, because it’s quick cooking (15 minutes or so) it’s perfect for getting a meal on the table in a hurry, which naturally made it perfect for the other night.

Even better was the fact that while the quinoa was cooking, I was able to prep up the rest of the ingredients, throwing together a healthy meal in under 30 minutes*. (Not to sound like Rachel Ray or anything…) Which left us a little time for post-food teeeveee veggin time, which was totally what Mr. Man needed for unwinding after that long evening. I had kind of toyed with making something a little more ambitious that night, but this ended up working out much better.

*Not including Picture-taking time…

Ingredients:

1 cup Quinoa

1 and 1/2 cups Broth

1 Lemon; juiced

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1/4 cup Italian Parsley; finely Minced

2 tbs Basil; finely minced

3 cloves garlic; finely minced

2 tomatoes; cut in to 1″ chunks

2 cucumbers; cut in to 1″ chunks

4 oz Paneer; cut in to 1/2″ chunks

Kosher Salt to taste

Method:

Bring the Broth and kosher salt (to taste) to a simmer in a saucepan with a tight fitting lid

Rinse the quinoa until water runs clear and drain

Add the quinoa to the broth, cover and reduce heat

Cook for 15 minutes, or until quinoa has absorbed all of the broth

Remove from heat and stir in the garlic.

Cover and allow to sit for a minute or so until garlic is tender

Transfer quinoa and garlic to a bowl.

Allow to sit (stirring if desired) until cooled enough that the quinoa won’t cook the tomatoes and cucumbers